Second Weekend of Banding 2023

Hello Everyone, 

Here is my second report of the 2023 banding season, covering the weekend of September 8th, 2023. 

Friday, September 8th 

Trudi and I drove up Friday morning to get ready for the annual September meeting of the Minnesota Falconers Association held at Hawk Harbor each year. We had most of the work done by noon, so I took a chair and sat out by our driveway to watch for hawks in the hayfield across the road. I saw lots of kestrels moving through, resting on the wires that run along our road. Every now and then a merlin or a shin would drop in and chase them around. One merlin landed in the field right out in front of me so I took a photo of it.

When Rick arrived about 1:00, we loaded the gear and drove up to open the banding station. We had it all set up and ready to start just after 2:00. Some birds were moving, but not as many as I had seen earlier. Around 3:30, we spotted a young female shin way out over the north side of the field. Rick pulled the lure and the shin locked on. It made a nice long slanting stoop into the net from the north side of the field and we had our first bird of the weekend! Falconers Curt and Thomas were up early for the meeting and hiked up to sit in with us for a while. More falconers showed up that afternoon to set up their camping gear at Hawk Harbor. About an hour after the first shin, an adult female shin came in from out over our fake owl at mid field. We closed down at 5:30 and then drove to Culvers in Two Harbors for supper. 

We got a total of 2 birds and no bounce-outs on Friday. 

2 Sharp-shinned Hawks. 

Saturday, September 9th

Saturday morning, Trudi fixed hot chocolate for any early risers and then we headed back up to the banding station to get set up by 7:30. A little while later, several falconers came up to sit in and help us look for hawks. We didn't see any raptors getting up or hunting the field, but a Yellow-shafted Flicker landed in front of the net and then flew right into it when it took off! Our first bird of the day was a flicker! We did not band it; we just carefully took it out of the net and let it go.

After 9:00, a lot of birds started getting up and moving. We caught our first shin of the day at 9:45. Ten minutes later, we caught another one. Around 11:00, I heard an approaching noise that I thought was an F-16 from the Duluth Air National Guard doing one of their random passes near our banding site. However, the noise kept getting louder and louder until a huge shadow passed over us heading north at tree-top level. IT WAS AN AIR FORCE C-130!!! It banked back over the trees and came around for a second pass, this time from directly behind us!! I was already out of the blind on the second pass and got photos of it as it passed over us and then it lifted up and out over the east end of the field!!! Just then I got a text message from falconer friend Eric saying "Hi Frank"!!! He was in that plane and had planned this fly over! An hour and a half later, a much smaller flying object came in and hit the net. It was a male American Kestrel. Throughout the day, falconers here for the meeting, came up in shifts to sit in at the blind.

We caught three more shins that day and finished off with a big female merlin. We closed down at 4:15, as it looked like we would be getting some rain. 35 people showed up at Hawk Harbor for the 5:30 MFA cook-out and meeting. That is the most we have ever hosted up there in all the years we have done this! The rain held off until everyone had grabbed a first round of food and then a steady drizzle came down for a couple hours. Mattie held the meeting under a canopy and afterwards Jackie conducted a raffle for some great gifts donated by club members. When it quit raining, we lit up a nice camp fire and everyone sat around visiting until the wee hours.

We got a total of 7 birds and no bounce-outs on Saturday.

5 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 1 American Kestrel, and 1 Merlin.

Sunday, September 10th

Trudi set up a breakfast buffet outside our trailer with hot chocolate and treats. Rick and I headed up to the blind to get set up and we were ready to start banding at 7:30. Many of the MFA members who had camped out at Hawk Harbor came up to watch. We rotated three at a time from the main blind to the over-flow blind each time we caught a bird. Our first bird of the day was a female merlin that shot into the net just fifteen minutes after we started. Five minutes later, a female kestrel started buzzing the owl, saw our lure, and came straight in. We caught two more shins and then a second kestrel hit the net, this time it was a male. We caught another shin twenty minutes later and then had our first bounce-out of the year: a female shin came in high, hit the top of the front net and bounced out! Arrgh! Fifteen minutes later, around 12:30, two shins came in at the same time, one went over the nets and the other one got caught. We were planning to close down at 1:30, but when we did a final scan, another shin popped up in front of us and Rick lured it in. It zipped around the front net, hit the back net, backed out, hit the back net again farther down, and got caught. When we ran out to get that one, another shin had come in from the woods and was caught in the back of the back net while the other shin was bumping along the front of the back net! A double at 1:33 to end the weekend!

We got a total of 10 birds and 1 bounce-out on Sunday.

7 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 2 American Kestrels, and 1 Merlin.

19 total birds for the weekend.

27 total birds for the season. 

Please help hawks by supporting:

Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory (www.hawkridge.org)

Midwest Peregrine Society (https://midwestperegrine.umn.edu/)

National Eagle Center (www.nationaleaglecenter.org)

Raptor Resource Project (https://www.raptorresource.org/)

The Raptor Center (www.raptor.cvm.umn.edu)

Twin Cities Metro Osprey Watch (http://ospreywatch.blogspot.com/)

Keep your eyes on the skies!

Trudi & Frank Taylor

01. A Merlin landed in the field near me.

02. Frank, Rick, and Trudi with the first bird of the weekend.

03. A young female Sharp-shinned Hawk.

04. An adult Sharp-shinned Hawk.

05. Curt, Rick, and Thomas holding the shin.

06. The first bird on Saturday was a Yellow-shafted Flicker.

07. Frank, Trudi, Gerald, Jennifer, Brynn, Holly, Stewart, Rick, Don, and Don holding shins.

08. A young female Sharp-shinned Hawk.

09. An Air Force C-130 buzzed the blind!!!

10. After two passes, it headed for home!

11. A male American Kestrel.

12. A male American Kestrel.

13. A young shin checking us out.

14. A young shin.

15. Three Sandhill Cranes trying to imitate the C-130.

16. Frank, Trudi, Rick, Thomas, Anthony, Kayden, Maya, Kirk, Peter, Stewart, and Joe with birds.

17. A female Merlin.

18. Some of the attendees at the MFA cook-out and meeting.

19. Trudi keeping the food dry during the rain. 

20. Everyone enjoying the food.

21. Mattie holding the meeting under the canopy.

22. Trudi setting the breakfast table.

23. Campers enjoying breakfast at Hawk Harbor.

24. A female Merlin was the first bird in on Sunday.

25. A female American Kestrel.

26. A young female Sharp-shinned Hawk.

27. Frank, Kirk, Don, Kayden, Anthony, Rick, Stewart, Thomas, Maya, Peter, and Joe with a shin.

28. Our neighbor Don giving rides up to the blind in his four wheeler.

29. A male American Kestrel.

30. Frank banding the kestrel.

31. Frank showing the banded kestrel to the group.

32. A male kestrel.

33. A young female shin.

34. Lots of people were able to release birds.

35. Trudi releasing one of the double shins captured that ended the weekend.